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Foreign Affairs on October 6–19, 2003
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e-journal #17 |
Conception on European integration of the Republic of Moldova
One of the most important events of the last two weeks — Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Andrei Stratan presented the Conception on European integration of the Republic of Moldova in Brussels. During his meeting with Andrei Stratan, Javier Solana, EU foreign and security policy chief saluted the elaboration of such a document and viewed it as a clear sign of pro-European aspirations of Moldovan authorities. He indicated that “EU would voice its opinion of the document later on, in particular during the upcoming visit to Chisinau of the EU’s Enlargement Commissioner Gunter Verheugen”. The Conception was also provided to Michael Leigh, European Commission’s Foreign Relations Department Deputy Chief; Hugues Mingarelli, head of the European Commission’s Directorate for Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, Mongolia, and Central Asia, Gregor Koessler and Bjorn Kuhne of the Stability Pact for South-Eastern Europe.
There is no doubt that the elaboration of the Conception per se, deserves our full appreciation, however, it is regrettable that it wasn’t made public and wasn’t put up for public debates in Moldova. Given authorities’ unwillingness to make public the document before, it is very unlikely that they would want it in the future once European Commission offers its comments. Most probably once they receive European Commission recommendations, Moldovan authorities would make the appropriate recommendations and the Parliament would approve it, without any consultation of the civil society whatsoever. The Strategy on European Integration of the Republic of Moldova as well as the Action Plan might well be developed in a similar manner without consulting civil society. An evidence to this are the talks Vladimir Voronin had with various decision-makers, including those of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, on the actions to be taken by the Republic of Moldova at home and abroad once the Conception is officially presented in Brussels.
Moldovan-Romanian bilateral relations
Recently, already feeble bilateral relations between Moldova and Romania have been deteriorated even further after Moldova’s permanent representative to the Council of Europe, Alexei Tulbure made several accusations to Romania at the 9 October meeting of the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers. In a related note, Communists Victor Stepaniuc and Andrei Neguta asked Council of Europe’s support in pushing Romania to register the old-style church, as well as to eliminate nationalistic, anti-Semitic, and xenophobe elements from the primary and secondary education history handbooks.
In his speech Alexei Tulbure referred to the tensions between the two countries, in particular over six important issues: “Basic Treaty, Transdnistria, special fund, economic relations, declarations on accession to EU, linguistic and history matters” (Moldova suverana (Sovereign Moldova), no. 179 (20358), 15 October 2003). Those differences may not be resolved within the bilateral dialogue, that is why CE assistance in mediating and facilitating “assessment of the existing problems, identifying possible solutions and defining actions that would restore the confidence and trust between both countries”. According to the Moldovan Ministry of Foreign Affairs those problems “endanger Moldova’s existence, hinder the resolution of the Transdniester conflict, and negatively influence Moldova’s European integration prospects”.
The response followed immediately afterwards, Romanian Foreign Ministry release rejected these allegations, arguing that Tulbure’s position “lacks real support and does not correspond to the European spirit Romania seeks to use in bilateral relations”. The release reaffirms that Romania “recognizes, respects, and supports” Moldova’s statehood and says Moldova’s sudden change of heart reflects internal difficulties in managing “complex identity and political aspects. Addressing them, rather than trying to divert public attention to false external problems, is the only solution for opening a new state in the negotiating with European institutions”.
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